"He's a living piece of history. He first recorded for Alan Lomax and the Library of Congress in 1942 and he's still doing it seven decades later. The friendship with Robert Johnson is hugely significant, and for that reason, someone once said that he might be more important as a raconteur than as a musician.

"He did my Radio 2 rhythm and blues show, and talked about being with Robert Johnson the night he died, from drinking poisoned whiskey. It's great to hear him rattling on about learning to play in the 20s, when he'd have been a teenager.

"The Delta blues still exerts the same raw power as it always did, and those stories are part of what makes Honeyboy a legend."